Posted by admin on Feb 24, 2016 in Blog | Comments Off on The History of Formula One Racing

For Patrick Imbardelli, there is nothing that quite matches the thrill and drama of Formula One racing. Join him as he takes you on a short historical walk through the beginnings of this exciting and elite auto racing sport.

While most historians date the official beginning of Formula One racing as 1950, even before this year there were races involving single seater cars, most notably in Europe and most specifically in France. In fact, the first “Grand Prix” (French for “great prize”) occurred as far back 1901, when the first French Grand Prix was run at Le Mans, with the winner, Ferencz Szisz driving a Renault, clocking what was then an impressive average 63.0 miles per hour over the 700-mile course.

The 1950 debut of the FIA World Championship of Drivers was composed of a series of seven races (which included the Indianapolis 500 as one of the seven slots in the string of seven competitions) that began on May 13 and finished on September 3, with Guiseppe Farina ending up the declared winner for the Alfa Romeo team. While Farina ended up winning 3 of these seven exciting contests, the Alfa Romeo team nearly swept the entire series, winning 6 out of the seven match ups.

In the first race, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Farina dominated the race by being named the winner of the pole position, the fastest lap, and the ultimate winning driver. In 2 of the seven competitions, Farina was the pole position winner, and in 3 of these seven battles on the racetrack, Farina also clocked in the fastest lap.

As we fast forward to 2016, the world of Formula One racing has offered 65 exciting and unforgettable Grand Prix contests that has never failed to leave the world of racing breathless and thrilled by watching some of the fastest cars on earth duel with incredibly skilled drivers behind the wheel. As technology and courses improve each year, we can expect to continue seeing new speed records broken on into the future of Formula One racing.

For Patrick Imbardelli, there is no greater spectator sport in the world today.